EAST LANSING – J Batt is gone. Kevin Guskiewicz soon will follow.
Their Spartan Ventures project, however, continues to move forward, approaching its July 1 start date that its head believes will boost revenue for Michigan State athletics.
Jon Palumbo, who is the Spartan Ventures CEO and an executive deputy athletic director/chief operating officer, said on Monday, June 15, that the course remains the same for the new athletic department fundraising arm. And it is a mission he described as “extremely important” to continue, even with the loss of Batt as athletic director (to Kentucky) and the impending departure of Guskiewicz as president (to Clemson).
“Spartan Ventures remains a critical piece of the future of Michigan State athletics. We’re all systems go, we’re pushing forward,” Palumbo said. “A lot of the work that I’ve been doing personally the last 10 months is towards the launch of Spartan Ventures. We’ve got great alignment. All the people who have been involved in helping us stand that up are 100% with it, and we’re going to keep that momentum going.”
About an hour and a half after Batt was announced as the new athletic director at Kentucky, Palumbo took the dais inside Spartan Stadium’s club level to announce a new 10-year partnership with Michigan State University Federal Credit Union for a deal that will place MSUFCU branding and patches on Spartan uniforms and helmets, among other endorsements across all of its sports.
Palumbo pointed to it as “a new revenue stream” to go along with being able to “maximize existing revenue streams.”
April Clobes, the president and CEO of MSUFCU, on Monday said the deal “happened in less than two weeks.”
“The comment that I made was this happened so quick and it was so professional and an extraordinary representation of what MSU is,” Clobes said.
MSU’s Board of Trustees approved the creation of the non-profit Spartan Ventures, along with its for-profit subsidiary Spartan Media Ventures, in October. It passed by a narrow 5-3 vote.
However, in April, Trustee Mike Balow (R-Plymouth) voiced concern that the groups are not being transparent with the Board of Trustees and public about its operations, which includes non-disclosure agreements. Balow, Rema Vassar (D-Detroit) and Dennis Denno (D-East Lansing) were the opposition votes in October.
“Alignment is important,” said Palumbo, who was hired by Batt from Georgia Tech last July as MSU’s executive deputy athletics director/chief operating officer and was appointed to head Spartan Ventures in March. “And so right now, it’s just trying to make sure that we’re aligned with everybody that’s here, with the VPs on campus that are still running their shops. Kevin is still here as we speak, so I’m making sure to we’re keeping a dialogue with him. And obviously the Board of Trustees, making sure we’re being transparent.”
In May, Guskieiwicz announced he would be leaving to take the president position at Clemson after clashing with the three dissenting trustees over a revised code of ethics and conduct for the Board of Trustees. Denno eventually signed it, but both Vassar and Balow did not and were censured by the Board on Friday at their meeting in Benton Harbor. The State News, MSU’s student newspaper, reported last week that Vassar in mid-May gave MSU a 23-page, pre-litigation demand to university officials claiming she has been discriminated against during her tenure on the board.
As of Wednesday evening, June 17, MSU had yet to announce either an interim president or an interim athletic director.
All of that internal conflict led MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo to lash out at the Board of Trustees for losing Guskiewicz on the same day Batt left for Kentucky and the MSUFCU partnership was announced. Without mentioning his name, Izzo included a veiled dig at Balow, whose daughter, Sophia, was a member of the MSU swimming and diving team that former athletic director Bill Beekman disbanded in 2020. Part of Balow’s platform to winning an elected spot on the Board of Trustees in 2024 was to get MSU to reinstate the swimming and diving program.
“He’s everything that is what I’ve always dreamed and hoped for for Michigan State – a blue-collar, regular guy that can do extraordinary things,” Izzo said of Guskiewicz. “So what else? I can’t name everything. I guess he didn’t reinstate the swimming program, I don’t know. I guess that’s something that’s maybe a bad thing he hasn’t done. Although he wasn’t here when it was [disbanded].”
After the MSUFCU announcement on Monday, Palumbo – along with Jared Kozinn (president and chief commercial officer for Spartan Ventures) and Tim House (president of Spartan Athletic Foundation) – posted a co-signed letter to MSU’s athletic department website. It said work with Spartan Ventures continues with “a bold, innovative framework that brings private sector advantages, a revenue generation focused approach, and operational flexibility while maintaining alignment with the institution and a continued connection with the collegiate model.”
“Great work has been done to get to this point, and the work will continue until we have provided our Spartan student-athletes with the resources they need to win championships,” the three wrote in the letter. “The foundation has been laid and the bricks are being stacked.
“The future is bright for MSU. MSU Athletics success is an important part of that future. Spartan Ventures is a critical vehicle to achieve that success, and we are ‘all in’ to make it successful.”
Asked if he felt there was anything in the coming two weeks that could stall the official July 1 launch date of Spartan Ventures, Palumbo said “I don’t worry about that.”
“Our Board has been vocally very supportive of it,” Palumbo said Monday. “Obviously, things have developed over the weekend. But I believe that our Board is still very much a proponent of Spartan Ventures based on my conversations with them and what we’ve talked about. And as far as leadership, I’m the CEO of Spartan Ventures and I’m here, so I’m planning on continuing to do that job and move it forward. To answer the question, I don’t see any reason why it would stall.”
Palumbo said continuing to reach out to sponsors and donors becomes an even bigger priority with the departure of Batt and Guskiewicz. And he said he is emphasizing to them that the vision of Spartan Ventures created over the past year “doesn’t change.”
“I think it’s an honest dialogue, right? Any time there’s uncertainty in terms of future leadership, folks just want to hear what the plans are, right? And so I think we’re sharing what are plans are as they stand,” Palumbo said. “Could those change with new leadership? That’s always a possibility. But I think you just try to be as transparent with those folks [donors and sponsors] as you can and also understand that they may need a little time and space until some things develop.
“But we’re doing our best to share exactly what I’ve shared with you guys – the vision doesn’t change. Michigan State athletics has been around a long time, it’s gonna continue to be here. And I believe we’ll continue to thrive, and that’s what we’re working to make sure happens.”
Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him @chrissolari.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Spartan Ventures ‘all systems go’ despite loss of MSU’s AD, president
Reporting by Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
